How structured are you as a parent?

Are you extremely structured with deviance only for emergencies? Structured/busy all the time? Mediocre with both structured activities and free time for the child/baby to do what they want? Are wake up and bed times absolutes? Are you more of a "I'll let my childs needs/wants dictate to me how his/her day goes"?

However your structuring is, do you like it that way or wish it would/could change? If you feel you want it to change, please explain how.

How does your child react, physically, emotionally and socially, to your type of structuring versus the kind they get at daycare or at school? Worse? Better? Same?

I voted mediocre but I'm probably borderline low. Rebekah can pretty much do whatever she wants (within the rules, of course). I try to do things with her like read books or do puzzles for at least a little time each evening. But, for the most part, we're pretty loosely organized.

We are instituting a new bedtime routine and I'm trying to keep that pretty rigid.

Rebekah is with my mom during the day and things are pretty much the same there as at our house.

Mediocre - we do have some planned things as a mode of socialization for Caroline (since I am a SAHM) - we go to Gymboree once a week, do swim lessons in the summer, etc. But there's nothing that happens every day or whatever. Wakeup time is whenever she wakes up, but we do try to keep pretty closely to bedtime; Mommy and Daddy need free time too! :aok:

Mediocre here. He was in daycare until he was 17 months and they were a little more structured than we are now, but I don't think he'd be any different either way.

My DH stays at home with him and they try to do something out of the house every day. They have a play date every Monday and then a school playgroup type thing every Friday. The rest of the week is a play it by ear kind of thing. He works with him on counting, the alphabet, colors, etc., but none of that is really structured so to speak. Counting his fingers, singing the alphabet, "bring me your blue ball" type of things.

i voted 'no structure' but that only pertains to activities.

i work full time and tony is in daycare...so when he's home he can do whatever he wants. he gets enough interaction at daycare so i let him set the pace at home, he can play alone or ask me to join him.

as far as bedtime, that is set :nod: i'm pretty much the 'na-night nazi' :lol:. mainly because he has to get up so early during the week as we leave the house at 6:45am.

I voted mediocre but I'm probably borderline low. Rebekah can pretty much do whatever she wants (within the rules, of course). I try to do things with her like read books or do puzzles for at least a little time each evening. But, for the most part, we're pretty loosely organized.

This is pretty much how it is at our house too. The only thing I am firm about is bedtime. All little people in bed by 8:30pm unless we are out for a family function/get together.

Dawn

I voted mediocre. Bedtime is the only absolute...8pm at the latest unless we're out of town for family stuff. She gets up when she gets up...meals are generally every 4 hours or so, and of course that will vary depending on her wake up time and her naps. I try to let her have free play as much as possible...mainly because she's only 1, so there will be plenty of time for structure later in life.

I voted mediocre for when we're at home on weekends but weekdays are pretty structured - I get Owen up at 7:00, have breakfast and then start putting coats and boots on at 7:30 to leave for daycare. We play freely in the evening until Owen in hungry and then I'm really firm about bedtime. Bath around 6:30 and bed at 7:00 or 7:15.Patti

i voted 'no structure' but that only pertains to activities.

i work full time and tony is in daycare...so when he's home he can do whatever he wants. he gets enough interaction at daycare so i let him set the pace at home, he can play alone or ask me to join him.

as far as bedtime, that is set :nod: i'm pretty much the 'na-night nazi' :lol:. mainly because he has to get up so early during the week as we leave the house at 6:45am.

This is exactly us, only I wake Jack up at 7am during the week.

I voted mediocre. The only set things that we have is Kalynn getting up at 7:30 or 8am, naptime after the Wiggles and bedtime at 7pm. Other than that, we play different games, and what not, but nothing too structured (she's 17 months old)

When the kids were young, we were very structured in order to make sure we did the tag-team parenting successfully.

Now that they're in high school, we know what each child is doing each night of the week. We're more flexible on the weekends, though, and the kids pretty much plan their weekend days themselves and check with us if what they want is okay. We raised them to make choices and have been encouraging them to try some things. We're still aware of what they're doing so that they can make good mistakes to learn from, too.

I chose low structure, but it is sort of between low and mediocre. We try to do some social activities, and recently have formed a more "formal" playgroup on Fridays. I've taken her to weekly music classes and swim classes in the past, and will pick that up again.

Part of the structure is because I work 3 days a week, but often my schedule moves around and I either need to be available on my days "off" or something like that. I'd actually like it to be a tiny bit more stuctured activity-wise. But her naptimes and bedtimes are pretty regular.

Ian loves routine. He gets most of his structured lifestyle at daycare. When he comes home he gets to have free-play until dinner. And then again after dinner. Bedtime is always at 8. He gets up everyday at the same time. Weekends are always unstructured, so sometimes he gets a little grouchy, especially when our plans interrupt or delay his nap. Overll he's pretty flexible. But I notice that he's happier when things go as expected.

Low structure here, for both kids. Austin's at school & daycare, and Jack's at daycare, so when we are home, they can do what they like (within reason).